Maia G., Meg K., Lori B., Carrie M., Misty B., Trisha D., & Alex, I want you to know that my little Guinness joke does NOT mean I think Irish people are all alcoholics, and I would hate to have any of you lovely Irish readers think that. Especially considering your hair-trigger tempers and all.

- Related Wreckage: Rockin' ShamsUPDATE: Today I learned that there is a difference between clovers and shamrocks. As I understand it from your comments, clovers can have either 3 or 4 leaves, but shamrocks can only have three Epcots. [nodding seriously] Good to know, good to know.

Only one thing, Jen - Shamrocks have three leaves. Your example is a fine four-leaf clover, but it's no shamrock either.

It's why St. Patrick used it as a symbol for the holy Trinity: the leaves stood for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Really. (I always liked the term Holy Ghost. Sounded much spookier than spirit.) That is a lot of useless information for someone who's not even Catholic!

And the sham-wows are clearly meant for another holiday, Siddown and Eat Yer Broccoli day, celebrated on...uh...March 17th.

Great, funny post as always. But you may want to re-think your shamrock reference photo. What you've depicted is a four-leaf clover. Any good church-going child can tell you that St. Patrick used the Shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity- three parts of one being. Shamrocks only have three leaves. Just sayin'...'cause you are the only one that gets to be a smarty pants.-Erin

I I might make one tiny observation? A shamrock has three leaves; your reference photo is a four-leaf clover (considered lucky because there are a lot fewer of them than the three leaf ones). You often see both as symbols for St. Patrick's Day now, but it was the three leafed shamrock that St. Patrick used to teach the idea of the Holy Trinity being three persons in one God when he went to Ireland.

One other nitpick... although I agree that those cookies are, indeed, wreckariffic, I have, in my possession, a beautiful Shamrock plant, and each leaflet is a perfect triangle. There are, however, only three leaflets to each stem.

So I give that wreckarator points for tryin'. The others, though? coffee-snortin' time. Honestly!

*worried that I probably just alarmed my neighbours by howling [like a bean sidhe! XP] with laughter* Whew... *wiping tears from my eyes*

To respond to the comments citing the story about St. Patrick and the shamrock. I was raised Catholic, so I grew up hearing that as well. However, the ancient Celts already had the concept of triple deities - both Triple Gods and Triple Goddesses - way before St. Patrick came along. If you look at ancient Irish art, there are many uses of three images interconnected, such as the triquetra and the triskelion [like the spiral triskelions which can be found at Newgrange.]

The story about St. Patrick is most likely another example of the common practice of the Catholic Church back in those days to take local customs and ascribe Christian meanings to them to make it easier to convert the people. [To be clear, I'm just stating that objectively as a matter of historical fact. I'm not passing judgment here.]

I recieved my first cake wreck this weekend! It was my birthday and I had requested cupcakes (I actually heart CCC's because of the mass amount of icing that is involved). Anyway, my husband (the sweet sweet man that he is) picked up a CCC for me that was intended to say, "Happy Birthday Chrisy"...instead, it said "Wappy Birfday Christy". Apparently they think my husband has a speech impediment.

OK - who in their right mind rounded the stem and put that extra line across the bottom of the RIGHT HOOK cakeI am glad, however, that they put the tiny plastic flotsam shamrock on there so that we would know what it is supposed to be! I wonder where the flotsam phallis is...Tracy

Thanks for including the Target ad! I knew it was only a matter of time when they started showing off their CCC handiwork at every holiday. They could probably get more money for that thing if they'd just cut a couple CCs off the stem.

They are different types of plants yet both are called shamrocks. I have had a shamrock plant for 27 years and it's still very healthy. Each leaf is its own little plant, and if you get dead leaves you shouldn't yank them out because that will disturb the stems around it. You just trim off the dead leaves with scissors. Also, the reason each leaf has a crease down the middle is that at night the leaves fold up like little umbrellas.

With the difference between the rounded ground shamrock and the pointy house plant shamrock you can ALMOST excuse some of the decorators for being a little confused. For all of the other cake wrecks, you'll have to blame the Guinness.

The shamrock (3 leaves) is the proper symbol for St. Patrick. Supposedly he used it to help the Irish understand how the holy trinity works. However, these are awful shamrocks. The four-leaf clover is a symbol of luck. I hope that clears this up.

Thank God they finally found a shape that so perfectly lends itself to CCCs! Yes, we acknowledge that making circles out of cupcakes is very difficult, but the shamrock--now there is a can't-miss CCC design!

For all those insisting on telling Jen that her reference photo is actually a four-leaf clover rather than a shamrock, I suggest you re-read the post, and check out what the reference photo actually references...yes, that's right, a "clover."

I like the way the triangle "shamrocks" (which definitely look more like the triangle-shaped houseplant variety than the typical St. Patty's day design) on the second one show frugality on the part of the decorator. The first one done (bottom right corner) is with the full pastry bag, and not wanting to waste any precious green icing, they kept going and squeezed out the very last bit on the last one (bottom left corner). Uh, yah...

I was about to ask the same thing as one of the other comments -- why does the "right hook" have a "tip" on it's stem? It is as if the decorator was going for the penis look on purpose.*Hahahahaha!!!*And the last one is soooo awful, I'm surprised it made it in a box and on display!?!?! Really?!?!?!?!?!?!?Thanks for the great laughs to get my Monday going!~Chell

Wow, #5, at first glance I thought it was a swastika haha. Why do all these only have 3 leaves? I thought it was lucky to have 4. And 3 leaves was just.. meh. Not that I can count the leaves on all of those.

I actually think that targets clovers were pretty good, considering they are made of cupcakes.

Actually, the reference photo only said "shamrock" when it was originally posted. Notice how it's crossed out now and says "clover" in bold. That's because this morning, people jumped all over her 8,000 separate times telling her that it was NOT a shamrock! So she edited her post.

Also, 100 people saying the same thing is acceptable up to a point. All 100 people could submit their comments at the same time and not have them show up on the comments list until hours later. That's why it says the blog owner has to approve the comments! Don't think that Jen and John sit there all day approving comments as they come in; they do a lot at once!

Give Jen and John a break. There are so many smarties and know-it-alls out there that make a fun blog annoying. Personally, I couldn't care any less about the difference between a shamrock and a clover. It just isn't that important in the grand scheme of things, now, is it?

I love your Blog and now read it every day with both of my daughters. Your wit is hilarious and we truly enjoy reading what you come up with. It would be great if alot of other readers would leave well enough alone, stop trying to prove how "smart" they are and just let you be funny. Keep up the awesome work, there is more positivety behind you than negative. =)

If you look at the add on Target's site and hit the details button, they have a box at the bottom of the window that shows a description of the item in question. It seems this CCC *patooie* is "Prepared in our store by our talented decorators." Hmmmmmmm...

Thank you for posting a photo of a four-leaf clover. All good Catholics know, however, that when one celebrates St. Patrick's Day in the traditional sense, the image should have six leaves. Three leaves represent the Trinity. Double that with a few pints of Guinness and you get six. I'm sure if you had ever been to Epcot, you would already know this.

*******That's all well and good, but that isn't telling us what they are being prepared FOR, now IS it?Prepared for whatever may come? Prepared for burial? Prepared for combat? I'm just suggesting that it's a very open-ended statement, all (ugly) things considered....

Every one of my baking genes is offended! No...I take that back - Every one of my cookery genes is offended!And there's no point allowing my Irish genes to speak publicly, as my comment would have to be banned.As for my hatred of broccoli genes....

@ Tyler:Re: that last *cake*.You could be on to something there! (Or, just "ON something". )The flag colors are sort of...there. Try this: stand on your head and look at it. (Makes a great party game!)

What I see is a sort of a sad, stringless, fretless,and not very attractive guitar with one hugeass aneurysm. And no price sticker, or even a "Free to Good Home" sign.If I don't leave right now, I'm going to cry!

So many complaints about shamrocks vs. clovers... Actually if the leaflets are heart-shaped, it is not clover at all, but wood-sorrel (genus Oxalis). Clovers (genus Trifolium, in a totally different family) have round leaflets. And the flowers of those two plants are completely different.

The last one looks like a clover that got ran over by a car, and then a baseball rolled on to it, and a tractor rolled over it and smashed it. And then some teenager spit his orangey red gum out a car window, and it got squished too. Then a drunk (on Guinness) wreckorator crossed the street, and said "dude, that would sell".

Wow that last cake I mean really.. what the heck is it? That is the worst shamrock ever. Or maybe it's supposed to be a psychedelic one since I have a feeling someone was on something to have made that thing lol. As for the rest of them words can't even express the horror of them all.

Shamrocks have three leaves "4 leaved(leafed?) clovers" have....4. The funny thing is, what most people consider to be clover is actually wood sorrel. Wood sorrel has heart shaped leaves, while clover has oval shaped leaves. :D

I am so NOT surprised that Target showcased that horrible CCC. I actually was kind of intrigued by them the first times I saw them, but I think I sent you two pictures, Jen, of our horrible CCC creations from target. One was a guitar that looked like a shovel, and the other was Elmo with goiter.

wv: jurreari Those of you who feel like lecturing about shamrock-vs-clover after the first few posts should be kicked in jurrearis. :)

I was at the grocery store yesterday and saw 2 Wrecks that made me regret not having my camera. The first was a frosting white-out job. I'd never seen one in person before yesterday; they're really ugly! Then, I saw a frosted brownie that said "Happy Birthday Gray." I'm guessing it was supposed to say "Gary," and it wasn't with the rest of the birthday cakes.

LOL - As I former Target Bakery employee, I had to laugh at your call out. The sad thing, I've met the people at corporate who think they were SO creative in their St. Pat's designs. Sad. So very, very sad.

Jen - If you have only ever seen Oxalis (what usually passes for shamrocks in North America) you might actually be delighted by a real shamrock - the leaves are tiny (the whole composite leaf is about as big around as a nickel, on a healthy plant), and the delicate pink flowers are so spring-like and pretty :)

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